What's quicker; including another file or querying a MySQL database in PHP?

Question

In PHP, which is quicker; using include('somefile.php') or querying a MySQL database with a simple SELECT query to get the same information?

For example, say you had a JavaScript autocomplete search field which needed 3,000 terms to match against. Is it quicker to read those terms in from another file using include or to read them from a MySQL database using a simple SELECT query?

Edit: This is assuming that the database and the file I want to include are on the same local machine as my code.